Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵ Why should I be afraid
    in times of trouble,
when I am surrounded
    by vicious enemies?
⁶ They trust in their riches
and brag about
    all their wealth.
⁷ You cannot buy back your life
    or pay off God!
⁸ It costs far too much
    to buy back your life.
You can never pay God enough
⁹ to stay alive forever
    and safe from death.

^10 (A) We see that wise people die,
    and so do stupid fools.
Then their money is left
    for someone else.
¹¹ The grave^[a] will be their home
    forever and ever,
although they once had land
    of their own.
¹² Our human glory disappears,
    and, like animals, we die.

⁵ The sun comes up,
    the sun goes down;
it hurries right back
    to where it started from.
⁶ The wind blows south,
    the wind blows north;
round and round it blows
    over and over again.
⁷ All rivers empty into the sea,
    but it never spills over;
one by one the rivers return
    to their source.^[b]

⁸ All of life is far more boring
    than words could ever say.
Our eyes and our ears
are never satisfied
    with what we see and hear.
⁹ Everything that happens
    has happened before;
nothing is new,
    nothing under the sun.
¹⁰ Someone might say,
    “Here is something new!”
But it happened before,
    long before we were born.
¹¹ No one who lived in the past
    is remembered anymore,
and everyone yet to be born
    will be forgotten too.